NORWAY — The Alan Day Community Garden will open Saturday, May 6, for the 2017 growing season, holding an open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 26 Whitman St.

Visitors will have the opportunity to sign up for garden plots, apply for the 4-H Youth Leadership Program (ages 13 and older), get a free workshop schedule for the summer, purchase a CSA share, and get a tour of the garden.

For people who have never been to the garden before and have questions, this is a good day to meet other gardeners and learn more. There will also be food, music, and volunteer projects going on.

As part of a new collaboration between the Alan Day Community Garden, Community Concepts, and the Oxford County Wellness Collaborative, volunteers will also be building raised garden boxes for the Community Concepts Norway and Riley Early Learning Centers in Norway and Paris, which provide Head Start and Early Head Start services for pregnant women and children through the age of five.

The boxes will be built at the ADCG and then brought to the two Centers, where they will be planted and tended by the ADCG 4-H Youth Leadership Program. The garden boxes will provide educational opportunities and fresh vegetables for the Centers to use. Anyone who wants to volunteer to support this project can help build the boxes on May 6 at the ADCG.

The Youth Leadership Program will expand in 2017 and begin helping to build gardens in other places where people want to have a garden. The garden boxes at the Community Concepts Early Learning Centers will be the first expansion to a new location.

The Alan Day Community Garden is open to the public during daylight hours. The ADCG exists to provide garden space and tools for anyone who wants a garden, to promote gardening methods that are safe for the environment, to create educational opportunities, promote youth leadership, and offer a community center where everyone is welcome.

FMI: alandaygarden.wordpress.com, 207-346-0708.